Journey to Beijing

This book gives an account of some amazing places which the author was fortunate to visit in China--from magical Guilin to historical Zunyi; from the stunning Three Gorges to tropical Hainan; from cities of the eastern provinces to the Avatar mountains of Zhangjiajie; from relaxing Xishuangbanna to hectic Hong Kong and Macau; and in the north from the Mongolian grasslands of Nei Menggu to the heart of it all: Beijing. Many people travel today, with something approaching 10,000,000 people in the air on an average day. Yet this is only a fraction of those who travel by other means. Why? For relaxation? For education? To get away? Or simply to say they have "been there"? On his own travels, the author saw many tourists arrive at a scene, struggle to get to a vantage point, get there, take the obligatory photograph and move on. They have not even looked, let alone appreciated where they are. All they are doing is ticking off places on their "bucket list". In this book, the author is striving to delve deeper, especially when it comes to the significance of Beijing.

Notes of a Shorewalker

Unhappy teaching and spurred on by an obsessive attraction to a young student, Catherine took a job in a hotel on the North Norfolk coast. The beauty of what she found made her want to discover more about Seashore life. These are notes she made on her walks.

Chasing Our Dream in La Rochelle

When the newly married Gillian and Bill leave Britain for rural France, little could they imagine the adventures they will have: from expert house renovation to wily language-school owners, to becoming involved in village life. The pair embrace all that comes their way, especially Bill, whose eye for the French ladies becomes legendary.While the newly christened 'Gilly-Anne' makes her debut as an English teacher in a school at La Rochelle, Bill tackles their new investment: a ruined house with no water or electricity. Fortunately, they are helped generously by their new neighbours. So many customs to discover, so much to explore in their camping van before the couple finally succeed in making France their home.New author Gillian Broome has written about her experiences with whimsy and humour. For those who have sought a new life abroad or are dreaming about one, her book will be a source of inspiration"”or laughter.

Lifting the Stone and other Adventures

These journeys record the adventures of a woman who isn’t afraid to travel alone. They are a mesmerising and immersive read, pulsating with humour and energy. The writing itself is beautiful and extraordinarily vivid. Every place that she visits is brought to life and imbued with a charming atmosphere. The stories are grounded in fact and characterised by a profound honesty. Her unique personal style shines out in the face of an increasingly grey and uniform world.

Lifting the Stone and Other Adventures is about the past re-visited and describes a world – in the context of the author’s romantic encounters – that is based on appearances. It is a world of male domination and control in which the feminine, the soul, is stored. This piece is the background to the urban adventures, and the reader is invited to view the show, this world of delightful appearances, as a product of repression. Any writing that is worth its salt aspires to the universal, to what touches us all.

How the Ship Changed My Life

Due to the difficulty to find a job in his city, Goran chooses the type of career that changed his life. He started to work on a cruise ship in the hospitality industry in 2013. He has three contracts in three different cruise ships. He considers this experience the most difficult but also the most valuable that life has taught him.Working on a vessel requires huge sacrifices like being miles away for more than half a year from family and friends, working with different nationalities and cultures, brutally heavy pace of minimal ten working hours every day and often even more without normal sleeping hours but on the other hand a piece of relaxation that makes it very special such as travelling to various attractive world tourist destinations and creating unforgettable friendships and adventures.Because of his soccer dream, he left the cruiser in 2016 together with Elizabeth from Peru (back then his girlfriend, today his wife) and since 2017 they live in Munich, Germany. From the first day spent on the ship, during all the rich experiences and adventures until the last disembarkation, through magical Peru and a special proposal on the beautiful Machu Picchu to the current life in Germany, he continues to explore new places and shares his soccer passion.Ship life inspired him to write this book and motivate people in achieving their biggest goals because he strongly believes that everything is possible if the person really wants it.

Transit to India

Changing times bring changing outlooks but even back in 1984, well before the plethora of today’s health and safety laws and risk-averse attitudes, an overland school trip to far-off India was considered somewhat extreme. And doubly so, given that travel through Iran was unavoidable despite Iran at the time suffering the upheavals of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution and engagement in a bloody war with neighbouring country Iraq.

The idea behind this 10000-mile, eight-week journey was to present a ‘retired’ old school Ford Transit minibus to the charity ‘Lepra’ to aid its life-saving work among India’s rural poor. Ten pupils aged 12 to 16, accompanied by two teachers, made up the delivery crew, in so doing possibly making the longest school minibus trip ever undertaken. One of the boys travelling (aged 15 at the time) said recently: “Surviving all the adventures and hairy incidents, all I can say is that I set off as a boy and returned as a man.”

Two Old Farts, Boots, Map and Compass

This interesting and fun-loving book draws the reader into sharing many unique experiences of walking in the South Lake District, Bowland fells and the naturally drained conditions of the limestone link, stretching from Kirkby Lonsdale to Grange-over-Sands via Arnside, giving pleasant walk experiences during the wet winter months in England.

Leaving England behind, they catch the first flight out to their beloved Crete and villa for the summer months. Come along and enjoy the wonderful walks in the Psiloritis and Lefka Ori mountains and villages, explore the wild and beautiful gorges and visit many sites of great archaeological interest.

Read the tales of helping friends plant beetroot and artichokes, pick and tread grapes the old traditional way and watch raki being made in one of the mountain villages. Read about parties with Cretan friends in the moonlit warm evenings and BBQs in a quiet olive grove after helping friends clear the land beneath the trees. Enjoy the many experiences that the average tourist never sees.

Tales of Travels and Trains

Jim Nicholls takes readers on a journey like no other. Visit places as remote as the Zulu battlefields in South Africa, learn about an inventor who made the first heavier-than-air flight before the Wright brothers, and take in an Easter church service in a small Portuguese town.

All this and more are held together by tales of trains ranging from a tiny rail motor in the Queensland outback to a wild ride in Borneo. Experience Switzerland and America from the windows of a train.

Train travel opens a window on the world, allowing a visual eavesdropping and intrusion into a country’s backyard that, if done in any other form, would probably result in arrest. Trains have it all, they convert the journey into the adventure. Real people travel on trains.

Discussing with a young girl from New Zealand how one meets interesting and friendly people on such journeys, she neatly summed it up: ‘Yeah, how many nice people do you ever meet on an aeroplane?’

Trampled by Tapir and Other Tales from a Globe-Trotting Naturalist

Pete Oxford is an award-winning photographer with images and stories appearing in the likes of National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Time and Outdoor Photography Magazine – which named him one of the top 40 most influential nature photographers in the world. He has travelled to each continent many times. Wearing different hats, he has been privileged to know many of the world’s most remote and pristine destinations as a professional wildlife photographer, an expedition leader on adventure tourism ships, a professional naturalist and on his own personal quests. Pete has a deep knowledge of all things natural and you will find yourself enthralled by this collection of short stories from his exhaustive travels. At times you will laugh out loud at the hilarity of the tales, then be blindsided by a short, thought-provoking sentence. Pete reveals his most embarrassing moments, his fears, his triumphs, his insights and his uninhibited passion for the wild. It is an inspiration to immerse yourself on a journey of adventure and discovery in the natural world.

Travel With A Gavel

‘I was a most unlikely traveller. Growing up in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, I had no great ambitions to travel other than to visit friends and family within a two- or three-mile radius. From the age of 11, I had to take the bus each day to the nearest grammar school, 10 miles away in Omagh. Apart from that there was an annual, one-day, bus trip to Bundoran, a small seaside town in County Donegal. That was more than enough travelling for me. At the age of 19, I had never been to Belfast or Dublin, and didn’t feel I had missed anything.
Sixty-two years later, when I sat down to write this travelogue, I realised that in the intervening years I had visited seventy-five countries and all five continents, many of the countries visited multiple times. How had I morphed from someone with little interest in travel into someone who was ready to fly off to anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat? Were the wanderlust seeds sown in my formative years or was I bitten by the travel bug after accepting an offer to represent Northern Ireland at an international conference?
I begin by trying to answer that question before going on to recount my unique experiences and perceptions, gathered from over 30 years of travel, along with insights into different countries, places and peoples. I hope you will agree that the outcome presents as a rich and illuminating read.’

Two Suitcases full of Kangaroos

Passport? Check!

Suitcases? Check!

Kangaroos? Check!

And we’re off! If you enjoy travel, having a laugh, are a keen conversationalist and even keener historian and lover of brilliant architecture, then these trips are for you!

Take care to cosy on down in your seat, and choose your fellow seat-mate discerningly because one foot on the buses and there’s no looking back.

Tempted? Then make haste to hobble, hurdle or haul yourself up the gleaming silver steps of these ‘Laugh a minute’ luxury coaches and await further hilarious instructions. Rest assured you will never be able to look a tour guide straight in the eye ever again without thinking of Aston, Gilda, Stan or Hugh (no, not puppies).

From the wilds of Cornwall to cosy little Irish pubs, from pirate coves to magnificent Gothic churches, and from the oceans to the mountains across the valleys and windswept moors – these two coach tours have it all. Not to mention the mystery of the tiny, furry kangaroos.

Panic Stations at Ski Stations

Conor MacNamara rode more than fifty of the greatest climbs in the Tour de France to try and conquer his fear of heights. In the end, Conor suffered a breakdown and discovered that he suffered from a panic disorder and required treatment. This book documents Conor’s experiences in detail.